Machine for opening, sorting, and cleaning wool.



F. KEOUGH. MACHINE FOR OPENING, SORTING, AND CLEANING WOOL.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 28. I917.

Patented Mar. 12, 191-8 2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

I m a 41 F. KEOUGH. MACHINE FOR OPENING, SORTING, AND CLEANING WOOL.

APPLICATION FILED IUNE 28., I91?- 1,259,243. 7 Patented Mar. 12, 1918.

FIG.2.

FRANK KEOUGH, OF PAVVTUGKET, RHODE ISLAND.

MACHINE FOB, OPENING, SOBTING, AND CLEANING W'OOL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 12, 1918.

Application filed June 28, 1917. Serial No. 177,482.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, FRANK Knouen, a citizen of the United States, residing at Pawtucket, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Machines for Opening, Sorting, and Cleaning Wool, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in a machine for opening, sorting and cleaning wool, and it primarily resides in a simply constructed machine broadly consisting of upper and lower cylinders having toothed peripheries, grids or screens of different meshes underlying the cylinders, and means for feeding wool to the upper cylinder said cylinders and means having a common drive.

The invention further resides in the features of construction and arrangements and combinations of parts hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein' Figure 1 is a vertical section through the improved machine, and

Fig. 2 is an end elevation thereof.

Referring more in detail to the drawings, the numeral 1 designates a feeding apron arranged'within the trough 2 for conveying the wool to the rollers 3 and 4 between which it passes on its way to the upper cylinder 5. Two sets of rollers are provided, each set comprising a positively driven roller 3 and a freely rotatable top roller 4, said top rollers being corrugated and yieldably pressed or urged downwardly upon the wool by a toggle lever arrangement 6 and a connected weighted lever 7, the latter being pivoted at 8 to a supporting frame structure or casing 9.

Mounted in suitable brackets 10 is a drive shaft having a fixed pulley 11 and a loose pulley 12 thereon, a power driven belt 13 being passed therea-bout and moved from one to the other by a shifter 14-. A. small gear 15, fixed on the shaft, meshes with a larger gear 16, carried by theshaft of one of the bottom rollers 3, for driving the latter, the other bottom roller having a gear 17 on its shaft that is operatively connected through the intermediary of gear 18 to a small gear 16' fixedly related to the large gear 16. The adjacent supporting roller 19 for the feeding apron is operatively con 7 cylinder.

nected to the latter bottom roller 3 by any suitable means, as a belt 20.

The upper cylinder 5 is'fixedly mounted on the shaft 21 which also carries a gear 22 that meshes with said large gear; 16 so that the drive shaft furnishes power for the feeding apron or conveyor, the bottom rollers 3-3 and the upper cylinder 5. This cylinder is provided peripherally with a plurality of outwardly projecting pins or teeth 23, which are relatively staggered and each formed with a screw threaded shank by which it may be readily secured to the cylinder.

Underlying said cylinder is a screen or grid 24 that is mounted concentric with the cylinder and extends from the sets of rollers 4-3 on one side thereof, to a discharge pipe or passage 25 that leads through the wall of the casing on the opposite side of the The mesh of this screen is coarse to permit all dirt. foreign matter and the second grade wool to sift or pass therethrough to the underlying bottom cylinder Consequently, nothing but the first grade wool will be swept across the concave screen by the pins 23 and discharged through the passage 25.

The bottom cylinder 26 is mounted on the shaft 27 and is like unto the upper cylinder 5, in design, having the peripherally disposed, staggered pins 28 for raking and op- V erating over the material that is deposited through the upper screen 24:, said bottom cylinder also having an underlying screen 29 of concave design for sifting the dirt and foreign matter from the second grade wool. Shafts 21 and 27 are provided with pulleys 30 over which take a crossed belt 31 for driving the lower cylinder in a direction reverse to the direction of rotation of the upper cylinder, as indicated by the several arrows. The screen 29 is of a finer mesh than that of the upper screen and leads to a discharge passage 32 provided in the op posite side of the casing 9.

A chute 33 is arranged in the bottom of the casing for collecting the dirt that passes wardly across the screen 2% and upwardly into the discharge 25, the short and inferior wool, together with the dirt and other foreign matter, dropping through the screen onto the lower cylinder. As the latter is rotating in the opposite direction, the :deposited matter is carried around in the direction oi the lower arrow to drop onto the lower screen 29 for afurther sifting. The sifting action is made very thorough by the pins 28 pulling the wool over the screen to the discharge passage 32. This is. also true of the sitting action which takes place in the upper part of the casing 9 so that in both discharge passages only the particular grade of wool is obtained, the same being clean and free of dirt.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is p 1. In a wool opening, sorting and cleaning machine, a casing, upper and lower cylinders journaled therein, peripherally disposed pins arranged on the cylinders, a concaved screen underlying each roller and ar-' ranged in concentric relation therewith, means for rotating the cylinders in opposite directions, and a lateral discharge passage for each cylinder leading through the casing in advance of the respective cylinder relative to its direction of rotation.

2. In a wool opening, sorting and cleaning machine, a casing, upper and lower cylinders journaled therein, each cylinder having a toothed periphery, and a concaved screen underlying each cylinder, the upper screen being of coarser mesh than the lower screen, and a lateral discharge passage for each cylinder into which the wool is moved from the respective screen by the cylinder.

In a wool opening, sorting. and cleaning machine, upper and lower cylinders having toothed peripheries, a screen underlying each cylinder with the upper screen of coarser mesh than the lower screen, means for .rotating the cylinders in reverse directions, a discharge passage arranged at one side of the upper cylinder for receiving from the associated screen, and a discharge passage arranged on the opposite side of the lower cylinder for receiving from the underlylng screen.

4. In a wool opening, sorting and cleaning machine, upper and lower cylinders having toothed peripheries, a screen underlying each cylinder, at. discharge passage leading from each screen at a side of the respective cylinder, a feeding apron arranged on the opposite side of the upper cylinder, spaced sets of rollers interposed between the-upper cylinder and the apron, each set comprising a lower positively operated roller and a corrugated freely-rotatable upper roller, the

wool passing between the rollers of each set cy linder,a feeding apron arranged on the opposite side of the upper cylinder, and

spaced sets of rollers interposed between the upper cylinder and the apron, each set comprising a lower positively operated roller and a corrugated freely-rotatable upper roller.

6. In a'wool opening, sorting and cleaning machine, an apron, adriven roller journaled at the delivery end of the apron, a corrugated roller 'lt'reely j ournaled above the first roller, means for pressing the corrugated roller toward thedriven roller includ ing a togglepresser, a screen onto which the wool feeds from between the rollers, and a cylinder having .a roughened periphery for moving the wool over the screen. In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

V FRANK KEOUGH.

Witnesses: i

' A A E. HAGERTY,

J. A.'M1LLER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner 'of'Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

